Hardik Patel to Amit Shah: Agitation won’t stop till I’m alive. If you want to crush the stir, then you’ll have to kill me!

A man-boy, facing sedition charges, should ideally stay away from making self-destructive comments, but Hardik Patel loves to tread on thin ice. The fledgling from Gujarat has taken the entire country to ransom. He has created an environment of disorder and unrest, wastefully drawing a majority of the State police force to track his movement… He is scaling now, no longer restricted to making soft, calculated statements.

According to the 27-page FIR filed by the Ahmedabad crime branch against Hardik Patel, the quota leader allegedly instigated his community to “wage war” against the Gujarat government. The probe agency has placed transcripts of telephonic conversations, and public speeches, of the Patidar Anamat Andolan Samiti (PAAS) members, and Hardik, as evidence. He was also fortuitously caught on camera, motivating supporters to “kill policemen”, rather than commit suicide for the cause of reservation for Patels…

Hardik Patel has metamorphosed into a potentially dangerous person. A man who likes to pose for a picture with a pistol in his hand, one of his several bravados, should not be leading hundreds of thousands of men. He has the potential to create many more Hardiks, hardened and unbending men. On Sunday, he brazenly showed impertinence when he stamped his foot on the national tri-colour, and held it upside down.

This culture of reservation may have stunted India’s overall growth. The Patels are looking to be part of a swelling community of people seeking free lunches. Many have it, many more want it. The OBC, ST, and the SC community have assured Government jobs, assured admission to schools and colleges, and various other privileges that come along simply by virtue of belonging to a specific breed… It’s worth fighting for such benefits, especially in such difficult times, but it’s not necessarily right, and egalitarian.

It can be said that people belonging to backward community don’t want to work for opportunities in life, but what is even worse is that the Government, since time immemorial, has never had the courage to educate the dis empowered, so that they could take what they wanted on the basis of their worth and skill. The State should take initiatives to empower people, not shake off responsibility by taking the easy way out – give them the reservation. Educating them is too daunting a task! Spoon feed them, if that’s what it takes to remain undisturbed from protests and disruptions… But that attitude is now coming back to bite them in their back. The Gujjars have had their field day, and are still doing their bit to force the Government to meet their demands. Now, the Patels are rising… but giving them the dole of reservation is an unlikely scenario, and the stakeholders know it. Still, there is a lot to gain.

It has been a highly successful show of strength by the Patels. The community has emerged in lakhs, rallying behind Hardik, ready to go to any length at the hint of an order. They have conveyed to the Government that they should not be taken lightly. He has made various rounds of jail, and considers it to be a heroic act, an honour. Someone should remind him this is not the Gandhian era. His visits to jail are reflective of his anarchic mindset. It’s a blotch, not a matter of pride.

It’s clear that Hardik is nursing political ambition, and there’s no harm in it. The only thing is that it would be interesting to know of the brain behind Hardik Patel’s combustible attitude and agenda. What can be deduced from the nature of his protests so far is that it must surely be an enraged mind.